Castaways details

Quick links

Community reviews

You must be logged in to create your own review.

These reviews are intended to be informational, not just opinionated.
The more information you give about the game, such as links, pricing details, description of game play, etc, the more likely people will vote your review up for the good information it gave them.
Of course your opinions on what you did or did not like about the game are also important for helping people decide if it is a game they would like.
These reviews are not intended to be one sentence comments expressing a game is great, or the best ever. That can be expressed in the rating system.
If you see a review that is very helpful, be sure to vote it up so it will float to the top.

Brittany's rview of castaways by Brittany Metts

2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

As you can probably tell from the game's title, castaways is a game where you manage a group of ... you guessed it, castaways who are stranded on an island full of hostile inhabitants when their ship crashes as a result of a violent storm. As if taking care of basic needs u and I take for granted such as food, shelter and health on a desert island using limited supplies wasn't hard enough, u must also have the afore mentioned hostile inhabitants slain so that they do not destroy the buildings and tools of your settlement as well as the people who build these buildings and create/distribute these tools.
The game is divided into 8 missions, which increase in difficulty. The first mission of the game focuses on building a ship which will get you back to civilization. This ship must be stocked with an adiquate amount of food to eat during the journey back home. Mission one consists of goblins which will try to burn down the buildings you build on the island, but will not harm your people.
Other missions in the game forus on killing enemies and defending your settlement.
This game has two modes of game play. Single player, where you play by yourself and multiplayer game where, as you would expect, allows you to play with others who have multiplayer enabled. During multiplayer games, you can send and receive resources such as food, tools and weapons, and you can send souldiers to help defend the settlements of other players. To send resources you will need a merchant's cart and someone who is assigned to be a merchant. To send out military help to other players, you will need a wartent (only available in missions 2 thorugh 7) and at least one person acting as a general. The only thing i do not lik about multiplayer mode is that despite the mention of sending out negative reenforcement (that is soldiers that destroy other players' settlements and enslave their people) in the provided readme as well as various online reviews including the one in the audiogames.net database, as of the current version, this feature does not exist and it is unclear if it ever will.
gameplay is highly customizable. Most customizations take place before playing the game for the first time or the start of a new game. As well as inputting your name and gendor, you will be asked to choose a starter, 2 perks and a fault. Starters and perks decide possitive things about people and settlement, where as a fault means something negative will happen..
During the game, you can assign jobs to your people. With the exception of soldiers and people assigned jobs via tomes, jobs can be changed. People on your settlement can give birth to children who will grow up to perform tasks if you have enough houses for the people on your island and then some. If this perk is enabled, you can have men as well as women who get pregnant.
In the main menu of the game, you can turn graphics on or off. If graphics are on, then the game will display text and graphics for people with usable vision, as well as people with 20/20 vision, which, in my opinion, makes this game perfect for the whole family. Whether graphics are on or off, this game can be played using a mouse. However, all game functions cannot be performed using a mouse so a keyboard is still needed to play this game.
In conclusion, this game is a great choice for those who like real time rpg and strategy and is perfect for those who are looking for an accessible audiogame that can be played with sighted friends and family. To download this and other titles by Jeremy Kaldobsky A.K.A Aprone, visit http://kaldobsky.com/audiogames. Enjoy.

You must be logged in to vote on reviews.

Resource Management at its Finest by keyWasFull

0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Another gem from Aprone, Castaways is superior when it comes to forcing the player to micromanage his or her assets. These are not limited to physical objects such as lumber and bricks, but also comprise time, space, workers, and military deployment. The mission goals differ, but all of them require that the player multitask in order to stave off life-threatening pitfalls. Enemies slowly encroach upon a player's land, slowly drawing the net tight until they invade and destroy buildings. Food runs short as people hunt animals or reproduce, adding to the number of mouths that need to be fed. Military units sustain injuries or die in battle. Random disasters can destroy crops or compromise stored food and materials. The player's job is to learn to bounce back from these setbacks and complete the mission in spite of them. He can do this by wisely erecting buildings and setting units to work. For example, a barracks allows one to recruit soldiers, who can beat back goblins in order to reclaim territory, but knights are five times as effective. However, a knight requires armor, which is built at a blacksmith's forge. Farms of various types can produce food or raw materials that can later be turned into food at other buildings. A hospital, staffed with a doctor, can treat illnesses, though treating wounds requires cloth produced by weavers at a textile. Buildings and resources are weaved into an intricate economy.
The game is easy to use as well. Various navigation commands are provided to allow you to jump to areas of interest, such as a specific square on the map, or to cycle through squares that contain your buildings. The game hides jobs that require buildings the player does not have, allowing the interface complexity to grow with that of the current situation. Speed controls allow a beginner to slowly step through the game, or an experienced manager to focus on pressing issues.

You must be logged in to vote on reviews.

Interested in contributing financially to help keep my work going and my services running?

Contributions are very appreciated, and will help pay for the server that runs this website and the JGT service.
Contributions will also be used to expand the JGT service to support more target languages than just English.
The button below is setup for recurring monthly contributions.
Because the costs of the services are ongoing, I can better gauge how much I can reliably expand services if the contributions are also ongoing.

Please enter an amount you feel comfortable contributing on a monthly basis. USD